12 Months
by aconsultingwizard
Summary: The year through the eyes of four Hogwarts graduates Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)
1. Chapter 1

A/N Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)- Charms Class (Assignment 7)

For your task, I want you to write about any small animals whether they come from a wand or not.

Prompts used: Rain (Word), 3rd person (Writing Style)

Word Count: 659

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><p>Spring is the season in which small animals are abundant. And a little known fact is that Harry Potter <em>loves<em> small animals.

When he was little, locked away in his cupboard, the spiders that spun their webs in the dust were his only friends. He loved to watch their intricate designs glitter in the sunlight and see them scuttle across the floor.

When he was allowed outside he would collect snails and keep them in an upturned flowerpot. When the first shoots of Spring appeared the snails would come out of hibernation. He was mesmerised by their shining trail of slime and their slow but deliberate crawl across the stones. The first year he tried to keep then Petunia found his snails and squashed then all. Harry cried when he saw the pile of broken shell. After that, every Spring until he left to go to Hogwarts Harry would collect every snail he could find and then release them, safe and sound, in the park.

Hedgehogs would also come out in Spring, and sometimes, when the first rays of the Spring sun began to warm the ground Harry would see the old badger emerge from his burrow. These were Harry's friends, his only companions to keep him from being lonely.

Birds fly back in Spring and Harry would watch them through the windows whenever he could, envying their freedom. Once, he saw a bird fly into the back window. When he knew no-one was watching he crept outside and scooped up the injured bird. He took it back to his cupboard and looked after the little brown bird for weeks, feeding it scraps and talking to it. Eventually it made a miraculous recovery (which Harry would later figure our was due to a burst of accidental magic) and was set free.

Spring is also a time of rebirth, and as well as meaning that all the animals came out from hiding, it also meant that Harry came out too. He would spend the Winter cooped up, doing chores while Dudley and his friends played in the snow, but come Spring Harry was finally allowed out again. Of course, it was usually just to help Petunia work in the garden but at least he was outside, usually digging in the dirt for worms and other creepy crawlies.

Oddly enough, Harry also liked the rain. Spring is the wettest season, and in the heaviest rainstorms Harry would sit in the dust, clutching a worn out blanket around him, just listening to the sound of the rain beating down. Often he would smuggle in a bedraggled kitten or fox cub to keep him company. Then, when the rain parted, he would run out to the window, watching for the rainbow. Even when Dudley shoved him out the way he never gave up,, always knew that the rainbow would come, clearing the skies, even if he couldn't see it.

Harry loved Spring, loved the way streams gurgled through the forests and the way new shoots spring up from the ground. Most of all though, he lived the way the woods and meadows filled with the sounds of birdsong, the way little animals crawled out from their hiding places and were filled with new hope.

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><p>Three years after the end of the wizarding war, the Chosen One is living a very different life from the one everyone had expected. Harry keeps a low profile, appearing and speaking publicly only at the annual memorial services. Most people alone, which suits him just fine.<p>

He has a job doing what he loves, working as a wizarding vet. Of course, he mostly looks after smaller animals; cats, rats and owls mostly, but sometimes he gets more exotic cases. He had operated on dragons, dissected blast-ended screwts and healed unicorns. Harry is happy, living in a world where he is appreciated and getting to help animals the way he always wished he could.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)- Ancient Runes (Assignment 7)

Write about anything to do with Harry Potter and the number seven. Whether that be, the Weasley family, the seven Potter's, or write about horcruxes etc. The number seven must be a significant symbol to the story. Alternatively, any student In their seventh year of Hogwarts.

Word Count: approx 600

To the examiner: My interpretation of the prompt was a little loose I guess... Seven Weasleys to play the seven places in a Quidditch team... I don't know if I conveyed that in this piece.

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><p>Summer is the Quidditch season, and so naturally the only one Ron Weasley cared about.<p>

There was no school, no distractions, and if he had his way the Summer would be filled with nothing but Quidditch.

There are seven Weasley children, and seven players on a quidditch team, so from the moment that Ginny was able to balance on a broomstick he was convinced that Fate had meant them to be the next best quidditch team.

Every day during the summer holidays he would wake up early and bully, bribe, and blackmail his siblings into playing with him. When it was too hot to play he would talk to anyone who would listen about tactics and, of coourse, his favourite team, the Chudley Cannons.

The Weasley team, when they could all be bothered, was almost perfect in Ron's eyes.

Bill. Chaser. Strong, fast, keen, but often distracted by the girls who often came to watch him play.

Charlie. Seeker. Talented and well practiced due to his experience on the school team. Almost always happy to play, he loved flying almost as much as Ron.

Percy. Keeper. The most reluctant member of the team, and only keeper because he hated flying and refused to fly around on a broom trying to pass a stupid ball.

Fred and George. Beaters. Worked perfectly together, but occasionally turned against members of their own team. (They loved dive-bombing Percy)

Ron. Chaser and self-proclaimed Captain. By far the most enthusiastic about their little team, even if he wasn't the most talented.

Ginny. Chaser. Determined not to look weak beside her brothers, she usually flew the hardest and the fastest, always trying to prove she was as good as everyone else.

Ron will always remember his first quidditch game. They played against a team made up of neighbours and friends. Ron had practiced for hours and couldn't wait for the game to begin. He had practiced for hours and culdn't wait for the game to begin. He remembers the first score of the game- throwing the quaffle to Bill, flying as fast as he could to catch up, George swooping down beside him to knock a bludger away, Fred smashing it at Cedric Diggory. A blur of red hair as Ginny whipped down, Bill throwing the quaffle to Ginny, who passed it back almost immediately. Then, the quaffle, flying straight at him. He clung onto it and then threw it as hard as he could, watching with bated breath as it clattered through the hoop.

They won the game, with only a few minor injuries, and at the end collapsed into a pile of red hair and frreckles.

Seven Weasleys, to play the seven positions, each moving together and as one.

* * *

><p>Sixteen years after his first quidditch game, Ron is playing professional quidditch, with hopes of getting into the international team. He knows his teammates as well as he knows himself, he lives beside them, watches everything that happens to them. When they play they are fluid, the movements of seven players no longer separate, all acting together as a whole.<p>

He has an almost constant stream of girlfriends, none lasting particularly long, and summer is still his favourite time of year, though now it is not a rest time, but the busiest time. Summer is quidditch season, his chance to show he world his worth, his skills. He is still most comfortable in the air, blending within a team.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)- Arithmancy Class

Write a story centered around one of the four seasons.

Word Count: 596

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><p>Hermione Granger's favourite season is Autumn.<p>

There's something simple about Autumn. You have to look closely to see it, but everything has a rather plain beauty. The leaves are all unique, each a swirl of colour as they float down from the trees above. The frost laces the grass in the mornings, making everything sparkle in the light of the dawn.

It can be cold in Autumn, there's always a chill wind blowing through, but she doesn't mind. In fact, she rather likes having to protect herself with extra layers, her face hidden behind fluffy scarves and warm hats.

Even now, when she'd probably too old for such things, she loves to tiptoe instead of walk, trying to avoid the crisp crunch of leaves underfoot. She loves the smoky smell of a bonfire, the sudden noise and lights of fireworks. Nothing, not even all the marvels she had seen in the wizarding world could compare to the sweet taste of roasted marshmallows and a fireworks display.

Of course Autumn is also going back to school time. The start of a new school year always excited her. Buying new books, seeing her friend again, boarding the train that would take her back to Hogwarts, back to her paradise of learning.

The real reason she loved Autumn though, was that it was the season she had the best memories of.

When she was little her dad would take her for walks in the chill Autumn air. When she got too big to be carried on his shoulders she would skip along beside him, her small gloved hand held tightly in his. She would kick up the leaves and he would swirl her around, both of them laughing as the wind whipped her hair around.

Later, her mum would make them hot chocolate and pumpkin pie. Her mum's pumpkin pie was the best thing she had ever tasted, and the pumpkin juice at school always reminded her of long Autumn afternoons spent with her family.

Long after her parents were gone she would remember them every time she stepped out the door into a cold, crisp Autumn morning, every time she walked down a dark, foggy lane, every time she saw a child running through the leaves. Her parents were still alive in Autumn, their memories still lived and breathed in the cold air.

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><p>Now, ten years after being first introduced to the wizarding world, she is working in the ministry. She is building a life for herself in a world very different from the one she was born into. She's lonely sometimes as she doesn't have time for relationships, she works too hard. Her friends worry for her but she resists all of their efforts to drag her out of her apartment.<p>

She still loves long Autumn walks, and the beauty of the woods in her favourite season, but she no longer has time to simply stand and admire the landscape. No longer does she wait out in the cold for the _bang _of a firework, or sit round a bonfire, not caring if her hair smells of smoke the next morning. No longer does she tiptoe down the path, trying to avoid the crunch of leaves underfoot. No longer does she have time to examine each individual leaf, each unique swirl of colour.

She is busy, always busy, one of the youngest members of the ministry, her star still rising. Everyone expects her to take over from Kingsley Shacklebolt when he retires, but for now she is constantly working.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) - DADA class (Assignment 7)

Prompt : Write about change.

Additional Prompts Used: Fall, Wither, Recover

Word Count: 461

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><p>No one is ever surprised to learn that Draco Malfoy's favourite season is Winter.<p>

In fact, if you were going to personify Winter, you would probably end up describing Draco.

His white-blonde hair always done like snow in the sun. His icy blue eyes were always filed with a look of cold contempt and even his skin was deathly pale. When he angry rage was like a blizzard, wild and out of control, hurting everyone in it's way. Mostly though, he just ignored people, blocking them out with a kind of calm aloofness.

However, for Draco, it was about more than that. Winter was a season of change, of new beginnings.

In Winter the whole landscape changes. A blanket of snow is laid over the land, covering the Earth's scars. Trees, already bare, gain a snow-white covering. Ponds and lakes freeze while rivers flow stronger and faster.

Winter has an exquisite beauty. Ice crystals drip from roofs and window sills and even the most withered plant is made beautiful when the sun dances off the ice that covers it. Snowflakes fall gently from the sky into outstretched palms, each one so delicate but individually beautiful on examination.

Then, after weeks of snow, the first rays of sun appear and the blanket melts away. Everything is changed once again, old memories recovered but in a new light.

Draco wanted change. He wanted a blanket of purity to cover _his _mistakes, to hide his scars. He needed change, needed that fresh start, the beauty and deception of Winter.

And then, in a new world, in a changed world, he could start a new life. Like taking the first steps after a snowfall he would leave his footprints on the new, unblemished world.

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><p>17 years after he first killed a man Draco brought one back to life. A different man, different time and place, and in many ways Draco himself was a different person, but as his heartbeat started again, the stead beep of the monitor bringing peace to the man, Draco was reminded of the past.<p>

After the war he moved to France. Now, a fully trained healer, he is working at St Gabriel's Wizarding Hospital. He was living a life that would have been impossible to even dream of when he was growing up. His father would have disapproved but Lucius was locked up and Draco no longer cared what his father thought of him.

Life was difficult, people still spat at him in the streets, mothers herded their children to the other side of the road to avoid him, but it was nothing he couldn't bear. He knew that in many ways he deserved their scorn and hatred, and so he never fought back.


End file.
